She gave Rudy a glare filled with all the loathing she felt.
His grin was crooked because of the scar, but no less creepy. He leaned over her. “Here, let me remove the tape. I remember how wonderful your screams sounded.”
Her fury and hatred were so great, she barely registered the pain as he ripped the tape from her mouth.
“You’re the most forgettable man I’ve ever met, but much uglier than I remember.”
The outrage in his eyes would have been funny if she’d be in a humorous mood. She wasn’t. This was serious. She needed to get rid of this creep and get downstairs. Jonah would be coming soon, and she needed to be ready to help him.
“You’re going to regret those words.”
In a way, he was right. For right now, he needed to see her as weak and terrified. Putting on her most convincing act, she shivered. “Don’t hurt me, please.”
“I’m going to do more than that.”
She waited. The urge to jump up and ram her head into his gut was strong, but the risk of injury was too great. Patience would pay off.
He leaned forward again. His giant fingers grabbed the top of her dress, clearly intending to rip it off her body. Using her upper back as leverage, she kicked with both feet as hard as she could. A pain-filled grunt was followed by a shrill shriek loud enough to rattle the windows.
With a fierce, quick pull, she broke the ties at her wrists and then released a shrill scream at the agony in her arm. Pain increased her rage, kept her focused. She bent down, snapped her ankle ties and jumped off the bed. Rudy was still struggling to get back on his feet. Before he was halfway up, she jumped him, taking him down again. His head slammed into the floor with a satisfying thud.
Roaring with anger, Rudy rolled over, pinning Gabby to the floor. His face blood-red with fury, he swung a fist toward her jaw. She managed to jerk her head back, avoiding the brunt of the impact, but he still managed to clip her chin. Her ears rang, and her head and heart thundered.
Giant hands went for her throat. Her hands on his upper arms, she held him away from her body, then in a move she’d practiced a thousand times, she grabbed hold of his right wrist and forearm, trapping them against her. At the same time, she hooked his right leg with her ankle, bucked her body upward, and flipped him. The instant his back hit the floor, she delivered a swift series of punishing blows to his face, each blow a targeted hit designed to stun and impair. After a dozen or so, she sprang to her feet.
Barely conscious, face a bloody mess, Rudy no longer looked like the monster of her nightmares. He was a pitiful excuse for a human being whom she had just beaten to a pulp. She had to get out of here before she killed him. As much as she wanted him dead, she refused to let him force her into being his killer. He didn’t deserve a quick death.
Turning, she searched for something to secure him. Her eyes latched on to the bedside lamp. Her mind on her task, she never saw the giant hand that swiped at her. A stunning blow on the back of her head sent her crashing to the floor. Shrieking and screaming, she kicked at him as he grabbed her ankle and dragged her toward him.
“You’re dead, bitch.”
She kicked hard, heard a crunch, felt the warm splatter of blood. His grip on her foot loosened, and she scrambled to her feet. Not wasting any time, she grabbed the lamp and whirled around. Rudy was somehow standing again but was teetering, ready to fall. The crunch she had heard was his nose, which was now a bloody mass of flesh. Swinging the lamp, she watched his eyes widen briefly as he registered what was coming. The glass dome crashed into his skull. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he dropped like a rock at her feet.
Sobbing breaths wheezing from her lungs, Gabby stood over him, working with all her might not to collapse on top of him. She had to get out of here. Ivy was downstairs, preparing a death trap for Jonah. She couldn’t let that happen.
She drew in another breath, then another. As she calmed, her body began to register aches in various places. She embraced the pain, knowing it’d help her stay conscious and focus on her next steps.
Swiftly wrapping the cord around Rudy’s wrists and ankles, she tied it in a crude knot. Her heart pounded in a frantic rhythm. Something was telling her to hurry, a sixth sense warning that more danger was imminent.
She took another quick look around, cursing the fact that Rudy had no weapons on him. He had been relying on his strength to control her. Gabby didn’t waste time on wishes. She had to get—
A loud crash downstairs had her head swinging around. And then, “Gabby!”
Jonah! He was here. And walking into a trap!
Empty-handed, Gabby sprinted out of the room.
The scream he’d heard was one of agony. Crashing into the door like a freight train should get their attention away from Gabby. He stopped in the middle of a small hallway. The woman he had hoped to never see again was walking down the stairs toward him, an HK45 pistol in her hand and an ugly sneer on her face.
“You Slaters have the absolute worst timing,” Ivy drawled. “It should have taken you hours to get here.”
“Where is she, bitch?”
“Now that’s just rude. You don’t knock, you don’t ask how I am. I—”
“I asked you a question. Where’s Gabby?”
“She’s preoccupied at the moment. While she and Rudy are getting reacquainted, you and I have some unfinished business.”
“Get the hell out of my way.”
“I don’t think so.”
Jonah didn’t bother with another threat. He had to get to Gabby. He fired at the same time she did. The bullet slammed into his chest, knocking him back several feet and into the doorjamb. He vaguely acknowledged that he was thankful he was wearing Kevlar. The breath was knocked out of his lungs, but that was all. He was disoriented for only a second, his dazed mind telling him to get his ass up. He needed to save Gabby.
“You’ve ruined my favorite dress, you bastard!”
A bright red bloom of blood covered Ivy’s right side. She was still standing, her hand over the wound.
Jonah lifted his gun again. Something moved behind Ivy. His heart stopped, and the breath he’d just gotten back left his body again.
Even as a small voice whispered to him that she was still alive, he knew if he lived to be a hundred, he would never get this nightmare vision out of his head. What might have been a white dress at one time was covered in blood and barely hanging on her body. Her face was deathly white, but her eyes…her eyes gleamed with life and purpose.
Sensing her presence, Ivy made a quick turn, swinging her gun toward Gabby.
“Gabby! Get back!”
Like an avenging angel, Gabby shouted as she flew toward Ivy at the same moment Jonah fired off another round.
His mind screaming, Jonah raced to where both women lay on the steps, neither of them moving.
Jonah’s voice, thick with anguish, woke her. She blinked up at him. His eyes were wild, his face devoid of color. “Jonah? What’s wrong?”
“Where are you hurt?”
“Hurt? What—”
Memory returned in a flash. Rudy Bianchi. And Ivy. Where was Ivy? She tried to sit up, but Jonah held her shoulders, preventing her from moving. “Where’s Ivy?”
“She’s dead.”
“You’re sure?”
“One hundred percent this time. Now tell me where you’re hurt.”
“What about Rudy? I left him tied up and unconscious upstairs.”
“I’ll get to him in a minute. First, tell me where you’re hurt. You’ve got blood all over you.”
“Most of it is Rudy’s.”
“That’s my girl,” he whispered. “But you are hurt. Where?”
“My left arm. I think there might be a bullet in it. Kind of numb right now. The rest are just bruises and stuff.”
He lifted her in his arms and carried her into the living room. Laying her on the couch, he quickly checked her arm. “Looks like it’s stopped bleeding, but try not to move. I’m going to check o
n Rudy, make sure he’s still out. Kingston should be here any minute. The police, too.”
She cupped his cheek with one hand. “You’re okay, too?”
“I’m fine.” He took her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. “Be right back.”
They had both survived. She lay on the couch and closed her eyes, allowing peace to wash over her. She could barely comprehend that this was over. All of it. If—
Her eyes popped open. Something wasn’t right. An odd feeling nagged at her, her senses telling her she had forgotten an important detail. She could practically hear Raiza’s voice telling her to get her ass up and—
She shot up from the sofa. When she had been in the apartment with Rudy and Ivy, she had thrown a knife and hit Rudy in the upper part of his body. He had pulled it out. But what did he do with it?
Think, Gabby, think. He had pulled the knife out of his shoulder and…put it in his back pocket. She hadn’t seen any kind of weapon in the bedroom. Nor had she seen a knife in his back pocket.
Where was it?
She took a step, had to make an abrupt stop as the room whirled around her. Grabbing hold of the closest object, the back of a chair, she steadied herself. The numbness in her arm had been replaced with a bone-throbbing ache. The rest of her body had joined in symphony, making her one big ache. Didn’t matter. She had to get to Jonah.
She walked into the hallway and spotted Ivy sprawled on the stairs on her side. Blood pooled around her body. Her beauty destroyed, she was now a mass of bone and blood. Jonah’s second shot had blown off most of the left side of her face.
Sidestepping the body, Gabby ran up the stairs. Her head jerked up at a growling curse. Jonah and Rudy were on the landing, arms wrapped around each other, locked in a death battle.
Gabby looked around for a weapon—anything she could use. Her gaze turned back to Ivy. The woman had been a trained killer. Surely she would have a secondary weapon somewhere.
Knowing she had only seconds, she raced down to Ivy and ran her hands up and down the woman’s body. Nothing. Holding back a sob, she rolled her over on her back. There had to be something that—
Her hand touched her outer thigh. She jerked the dress up. A holster, holding a Ruger LCR revolver, was attached to her right thigh. Sliding the gun from the holster, Gabby ran back up the stairs, praying she wasn’t too late.
They were still wrapped in a life-or-death struggle. Rudy had Jonah pinned to the wall. The knife she had forgotten about was gripped in his hand and was covered in blood. She already knew the blood was Jonah’s.
“Jonah!” she screamed. “Get away from him!”
Rudy twisted his head toward her, shouted, “You’re next, bitch!”
Taking advantage of Rudy’s distraction, Jonah wedged an arm between them and pushed hard. Rudy stumbled backward, and without a second thought, Gabby unloaded the gun into his chest.
She didn’t wait to see him fall. Jonah was slumped against the wall, covered in blood. She went to her knees, grabbed his face in her hands. “Jonah. Look at me.”
“He’s dead.”
“Yes, he’s dead. Come on. You need to lie down.”
“You’re finally free.”
“Yes.” Tears poured from her eyes. “Thanks to you, I’m finally free. Now let’s get you somewhere to lie down.”
“Think I’ll just do that here.” He slid down the wall and landed with a thud.
She went to her knees beside him and looked into his eyes. They were glassy and full of pain.
“Where are you hurt?”
He gave her a crooked smile. “Be easier to say where I don’t hurt.”
Gabby fought back the panic. She couldn’t lose him. She couldn’t.
“I need to find something to staunch the bleeding.”
“Don’t. Just...”
“Jonah? Stay with me. Please.”
His eyes closed, another small smile curving his mouth. “You did most of it. You’re a badass.”
“I—”
A noise, like glass breaking, sounded downstairs. Gabby squeezed Jonah’s hand and then ran to the top of the stairway. Wyatt Kingston stood at the open door.
“Wyatt! Hurry! Jonah’s hurt!”
She ran back to where Jonah was sitting. He was slumped over, his face death white, his eyes closed.
Her mind screamed in denial.
Chapter Forty-seven
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison Memorial Hospital
He existed on a cloud. Muffled voices, anxious whispers, and tear-filled voices were distant and indistinct. There was pain, but it existed like a far-away entity, distant, but also threatening.
Hands touched him, some competent, others gentle and kind. A couple of times, he felt kisses on his brow. And once he felt soft lips on his mouth. That one had made him want to smile, because the lips belonged to someone he loved.
As long as he stayed here, cloaked in this puffy cloud, he didn’t have to face the pain. Didn’t—
The face of an angel appeared in his mind. Gabby. Beautiful, courageous, wise beyond her years. But tears pooled in her chocolate-brown eyes. She was crying. He didn’t know why or what. He knew only that he needed to do something to stop them. Seeing Gabby cry tore at his heart like nothing else could.
With Herculean effort, Jonah left his place of peace and returned to the pain-filled brightness of the living.
“Welcome back.”
A middle-aged woman with twinkling blue eyes beamed down at him. She was a stranger but seemed amazingly pleased to see him.
He opened his mouth to ask her what was going on and realized he couldn’t. Something was blocking his ability to speak. A wave of anger washed over him. What the hell was going on?
“Now, now. I can see you’re getting upset. Don’t you worry. The doctor is on the way, and we’ll get that tube out of you. Just relax.”
Wasn’t easy, but unless he wanted to pull the damn thing out himself, he would wait. But they needed to hurry. He had questions, and he wanted answers. Where was Gabby? Was she okay? How badly had she been hurt? Were Rudy Bianchi and Ivy Roane really dead? What had Gabby gone through before he arrived?
What happened after he collapsed was a blur of images and frantic voices. What happened before would be ingrained in his memory for all time. He was in love with a warrior woman. There was no other way to describe Gabriella Mendoza. She had faced her worst nightmare, the monster who’d taken her innocence and almost killed her, and won. Hell, she’d beat the shit out of him and then tied him up in a neat little bow.
Bianchi had surprised him, though. Jonah had eased open the door, expecting to find the bastard still tied up, hopefully unconscious. Instead he’d found an empty room. He had been about to back out and shout a warning to Gabby when he’d felt a presence behind him. He’d twisted around but not in time to avoid the knife going into his lower back. Lucky for Bianchi because it had just missed the protection of his Kevlar vest.
Jonah had managed to get in some good slugs but Bianchi had gotten in a few more stabs, too. And then his warrior woman had shown up.
She’d helped him with Ivy, too. Leaping toward the assassin like an avenging angel, Gabby had distracted the woman, allowing him to take the kill shot. That she had almost been shot, too, made him shudder. At such close range, it would have been instant death. Thank God he’d been able to stop that from happening.
His eyes roamed around the room. Where was she now? How long had he been here? His mouth felt as if he hadn’t had water in a year. His throat hurt as if he’d swallowed a truckload of gravel. And his chest…his chest felt as if a giant elephant was dancing a jig right in the center.
The doctor finally arrived. Not nearly as cheerful sounding as the nurse had been, he briefly explained that Jonah had undergone surgery for a knife wound that had nicked a kidney. He also explained he had a cracked rib, a slight concussion, and twenty or so stitches all over his body.
No wonder he felt like shit.
J
onah pointed at the tube in his mouth. He couldn’t say a damn thing until it was out of him. Giving gruff instructions to the nurse, he proceeded to remove the tube. Jonah cursed him in silence, telling himself the sooner he got this over with, the sooner he could find out what was going on.
But most important, where the hell was Gabby?
***
The driver eyed her warily as she stepped onto the bus. She likely looked like a victim of abuse. The bruises on her face and around her neck were obvious evidence of violence. If she told him she was no victim and had been the winner of the fight, she doubted he would believe her. Besides, she didn’t feel much like a winner right now.
Since the trip would take several hours, she went to a seat in the back and settled in for a long ride. A few passengers glanced her way, but she didn’t meet anyone’s eyes, so no one bothered her.
He would be angry with her when he woke. She was sure of that. But she couldn’t stay. She had waited until she was sure he was going to be all right, and then she’d slipped out of the hospital. Checking herself out when the doctor kept insisting she needed more rest hadn’t been easy, but she had persevered. The bullet wound in her arm throbbed like a toothache, an ugly reminder of what had happened. Her only other wounds were superficial. There was no need to stay longer. Her doctor had argued about emotional trauma but hadn’t been able to dissuade her. She had needed to leave. Staying would cause much more emotional trauma than she could handle.
Her phone buzzed, and she braced herself as she clicked to read the text message. Her breath hitched when she saw it was from Lacey.
Hey, where are you?
She quickly responded, Is Jonah okay?
Yes. He’s awake, asking for you. Where are you?
He was awake. He was going to be all right. Even though the doctor had reassured her repeatedly of that fact, she hadn’t been completely sure. But now…she closed her eyes. Now she could breathe so much easier.
Her phone buzzed again. She opened her eyes and read, Gabby, what’s going on?
Too Far Gone: A Grey Justice Novel Page 32
